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Topic: For those of you who do not know... (Read 5561 times)

Some of you may recognize me, some may not. However, upon suggestion of a redditor, I decided to come here and let people know that I am now an atheist. As my fellow redditor put it, you guys might be interested in knowing that I have escaped the cult.

In any case, I've been an atheist for about a year now. Well, I call myself an agnostic, but since I do not believe in a god, that technically means I am an atheist. My parents do not know. My husband knows and my sister knows, that's about it. I'm even uncomfortable talking about it in person. I recently met a creationist and he asked me if I believed in god. I told him that I'm "spiritually confused" and preferred not to talk about it. We then started talking about evolution. He told me that there was this video he wanted me to watch. He claimed that it was a valid, scientific defense (and completely sound defense) of creation. I smiled and said, "Oh, that should be interesting. I've never seen valid scientific evidence in favor of creation." Thinking to myself, "yeah, because there is none!"

Anyway, being a non-believer is great! Although, it's a little depressing when I think about death. The thought of not existing is depressing. Although, I don't remember what it was like before I existed, so I doubt I will care once I'm done existing.

What was your religious background, and how did that affect your deconversion? My upbringing was only vaguely Christian (Quaker meetings, some Sunday school in my early years), which kept me, I think, from religious conservatism / extremism. Was your family and childhood particularly religious?

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Live a good life... If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.--Marcus Aurelius

I am from a Catholicism background. Since I no longer believed in the OT about 7 years ago (science completely invalidated it), I started to believe only in Jesus. Then I learned all about Jesus. Now I realize he was only a human, not said 'God's word/flesh/himself/whatever'...

The reason a lot of people can still believe in Jesus is because they can't make any sense of him. But I'm growing tired of people not being able to understand things like Jesus and Revelation, and claiming that they know everything about it. My assumption was that if it was written to teach people, then it should be taken literally. What I found out was that not even the parallel gospels were written by his followers - they were written years later, by different people and different societies, to convert people to Christianity. Then, we found all this old stuff, put it together, and there sprouted our recent version of Christianity.

This site invalidates Jesus completely. It was my last thread in religion. This was all I needed. Seeing how much damage Christianity has done in the past, I now regard most religion as basically negative for society. That's why I'm so against it...

The thing I would say is, if you are going to be atheist, at least you didn't go the opposite end of the spectrum..

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"If you find yourself reaching for the light, first realize that it has already touched your finger.""If I were your god, I would have no reason for judgement, and you have all told endless lies about me. Wait - you do already. I am not amused by your ignorance, thoughtlessness, and shallow mind."

Welcome back! And welcome to the dark side of the force. See, it's a lot better than theists like to make out. Please say you've celebrated by having the customary baby barbecue? Because them babies taste great!

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“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet” - Miyamoto MusashiWarning: I occassionally forget to proofread my posts to spot typos or to spot poor editing.

Hey GG we meet once again. I wondered what happened to you since the demise of ATT. I was Icarus on that forum and you were one of the members that I admired even though you were maybe a little confused.

I hope that you and Kurt and the little one are doing well. I also hope that your parents do not have a cat because you have become a secularist and therefore a traitor. You have now come to terms with common sense so take comfort in that knowledge and know that you have some friends who care about you.

Sepp; We know that you are just fooling around but GG will be sensitive about the baby thing because she has a fairly new one. Treat her nice, she is a sweetheart who was victimized by a clan of pentecostal jesus freaks in her family. 'Scuse me for butting in here, I'm doing my Don Quixote thing. GG is sort of like my Dulcinea.

Good that you have finally "seen the light". That guy sounds like a troll, he just wants you to watch a video and find you already know all the 'alid' scientific defence of creation, just like the hundred hour videos of random stuff on YouTube. For anyone to be saved, they must be atheist.

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"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget."-Thomas Szasz

What was your religious background, and how did that affect your deconversion? My upbringing was only vaguely Christian (Quaker meetings, some Sunday school in my early years), which kept me, I think, from religious conservatism / extremism. Was your family and childhood particularly religious?

I was raised pentecostal but was baptized in a four square church. My indoctrination was so strong that I had a really difficult time letting go of god. It was one of the hardest things I have had to do.

Congratulations. If I recall, you were a foursquare, right? I hope you can stay on the wagon.

you are correct! Also I have been this way for about a year now. I doubt I will ever go back to god. Although sometimes I wonder if on my deathbed I will cave like my grandfather did and start believing. However, I figure if there is a god and s/he is just then I have nothing to worry about in not believing. Wouldn't want to believe in an unjust god.

Hey GG we meet once again. I wondered what happened to you since the demise of ATT. I was Icarus on that forum and you were one of the members that I admired even though you were maybe a little confused.

I hope that you and Kurt and the little one are doing well. I also hope that your parents do not have a cat because you have become a secularist and therefore a traitor. You have now come to terms with common sense so take comfort in that knowledge and know that you have some friends who care about you.

Hey Icarus! It is great to see you again. The little one was adopted by another family in April 2011. We have another little one on the way though. January 2013 to be precise. Unfortunately my first little one was adopted by a Christian family and will be raised Christian most likely.

My parents believe I am a Christian still. Which I think is best because it will avoid unnecessary heartache for them.

Good luck with that Lillia. I sincerely hope you're feeling this way is caused by your own thoughts and not someone else's. Not because I care if you are a theist or not but because I like you best when you are intellectually honest with yourself. I know you struggle with letting others influence the way you think and feel and I hope for your own happiness that these words are your own.

Edit: I wrote this before your last post. Good luck was intended to be directed at your OP not pregnancy.

« Last Edit: May 06, 2012, 05:46:48 PM by Kimberly »

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Thank you for considering my point of view; however wrong it may be to you.

A few people whom I have told have wondered if perhaps this is my husband's doing. The answer to that is no. I never talk to to him about god. This is completely my decision. I think it helped a lot to have been moved out of my parent's home where the pressure to believe in god is strong.

You know, I never really researched the history of my old denomination. I think I read a wikipedia article about it once but I cannot recall who that lady is. Was she the founder? I know it was founded by a woman, just can't recall her name.

A few people whom I have told have wondered if perhaps this is my husband's doing. The answer to that is no. I never talk to to him about god. This is completely my decision. I think it helped a lot to have been moved out of my parent's home where the pressure to believe in god is strong.

I am not sure. We just don't talk about god. Even when I did believe in god I rarely spoke or even thought of him outside of discussion forums. Sometimes I browse /r/atheism and share some of the posts there with him. But that is about it.

The little one was adopted by another family in April 2011. We have another little one on the way though. January 2013 to be precise. Unfortunately my first little one was adopted by a Christian family and will be raised Christian most likely.

May I ask what has changed this time around to warrant the two of you having another baby? Last I heard Kurt couldn't/wouldn't do what it took to meet the state requirements to get your first child back.

This news absolutely breaks my heart. Everyone deserves a second chance; but it's not even been a year since the two of you failed to properly care for your first baby. I hope for your sake, but mostly the unborn babies sake, you have and or will get your life straightened out before putting another baby through the turmoil Jasen went through.

If nothing has improved please consider putting it up for adoption before something worse happens this time around.

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Thank you for considering my point of view; however wrong it may be to you.

Kim I sent you a pm and as for the rest of you, I don't think this thread is the best place to talk about stuff like this. If you wish to talk about deconversion, I am more than happy to. If you wish to discuss other things (like my decision to become a parent again) then please send me a private message. Otherwise your posts will be ignored.

Kim I sent you a pm and as for the rest of you, I don't think this thread is the best place to talk about stuff like this.

Unfortunately, you are the one who brought it up in the open on a public forum in front of members, some of whom know your past, and you are the one who has a signature telling the forum that you are pregnant. If you don't want to discuss it, then don't talk about it on a public forum, and don't advertise you are pregnant by using a baby timeline signature. This parenting chatter related to you and your parenting skills is your fault, not the members (or mine).

I too have found that the thing with death to be a little depressing, but i find it because of the old belief in hell. One way i tend to cope with this is through spirituality of some sort. And even then i am still a bit skeptical.

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Psalm 137:9 - Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!